Cyril Magnin

Cyril Isaac Magnin (July 6, 1899 – June 9, 1988) was an American businessman from San Francisco, California. He was the chief executive of the Joseph Magnin Co.

Early life Cyril Isaac Magnin was born to a Jewish family on July 6, 1899. His father, Joseph Magnin, was the founder of specialty department store Joseph Magnin Co. His paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Magnin, was the founder of I. Magnin, an upscale women's clothing store in San Francisco.

Political advocacy Magnin was a veteran political fund-raiser and power broker in the Democratic Party. the others being the Fairmont Hotel magnate Benjamin Swig, Lilli Ann clothing company founder Adolph Schuman, and real estate mogul Walter Shorenstein. The four did not always agree in their choice of candidates. Magnin himself was a major donor to the presidential candidacies of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and, in the interim, developed a close friendship with Lyndon Johnson.

Personal life and death He was married to Anna (Smithline) Magnin, who died in 1948. They had two sons and a daughter: Donald I. Magnin, Jerry A. Magnin and Ellen Magnin Newman. He remarried to Lillian Ryan Helwig in 1951, only to divorce a decade later, in 1961. He identified as a non-practicing Jew. He died on June 9, 1988. The two-block stretch of Fifth Street North, north of Market and adjacent to Hallidie Plaza, was renamed Cyril Magnin Street in his honor during his lifetime.